Monrovia Penis Enlargement Pill Maker to Pay $1.75 Million Settlement

A local company that hocks its ExtenZe supplements as "male enhancement" on late-night infomercials has agreed to pay a $1.75 million settlement for falsely claiming that the pills increase penis size, Orange County prosecutors announced Thursday.

Biotab Nutraceuticals, which has offices in the 400 block of East Huntington Drive, agreed to the payment to settle a false advertisement lawsuit brought by the Orange County District Attorney's Office (OCDA).

"The lawsuit pertains to Biotab products marketed and sold throughout the State of California and states that the company engaged in false and misleading advertising in the the marketing and sale of certain dietary supplement products, including ExtenZe, which they falsely claimed without any substantiation would enhance a man’s penis size," states the OCDA in a news release.

The company, which was previously known as Dish Direct, Inc., settled a similar civil suit brought by the OCDA in 2006, shelling out $300,000. The most recent lawsuit stems from the 2006 settlement, which included injunctive terms preventing the company from engaging in further misleading advertising.

"This is the largest civil settlement stemming from a violation of a past injunction in Orange County history," the district attorney's release states.

A phone message left at Biotab's offices was not immediately returned. The company admitted no fault or liability under the terms of the settlement, according to the OCDA.

Biotab, which has a website consisting of just a single home page, describes itself as a "premier all-natural, life-style supplements company."

"The founders of Biotab dreamed of creating a company that provides the best all-natural, life-style supplements to meet the growing demands of people striving to improve their lives," the website states.

Despite the company's all-natural claims, Thursday's settlement marks the second time that its products have been found to contain too much lead. The company was also required to reduce unhealthy lead levels in 2006, but apparently failed to comply.

"An investigation by the OCDA revealed that multiple lot numbers of the ExtenZe product contained over the legal limit of micrograms of lead without proper warning labels.

The company will now be required to follow a "strict testing protocol" for all of its products, according to the OCDA.

Biotab's business practices were also called into question by the lawsuit, which asserted that the company failed to refund customers money and charged customers for products they did not order.

Biotab will be required to pay restitution to customers who filed complaints with regulators or the company between 2006 and 2006.

Peddled by a variety of famous spokespeople that have included porn star Ron Jeremy and Super Bowl-winning NFL coach Jimmy Johnson, ExtenZe has run infomercials on late-night television for years.

The first infomercials for the pills made explicit claims about penis enlargement, but more recent ads have relied on innuendo and used the more vague term "male enhancement" to describe the product's effects. A recent ad viewable on Youtube features Johnson encouraging customers to "go long with ExtenZe."

"It works for me, and since ExtenZe has sold over a billion tablets to men, I'm thinking it works for them too," Johnson says.